Determination and Familiars
by 28-characters-later
Summary: A month after the barrier was broken, Frisk heads back underground to get the monster who refused to come with everyone before.
1. A New Friend

This is the very start of my Undertale AU that I have finally actually started writing out. It's the AU that the story "I'm Fine, I'm Just Tired" takes place in. Although Frisk doesn't normally have lyme disease as she did in that story. This AU has an rp blog on tumblr: determination-and-familiars.

...

Frisk gave one more glance across her room. One last check to make sure she had everything ready. There were large bags of fertilizer in the far corner, a watering can, a large tub of dirt, a trowel and a few smaller flowerpots. Yeah. That should do it. Grabbing one of the pots and the trowel, Frisk placed them in a backpack before heading downstairs.

"Mom, I'll be back in a bit, just going to get a friend!" Frisk raced out of the house before her mother could even respond.

The sun was beginning to dip below the trees, giving everything a slight orange hue.

Sprinting down the road, Frisk only slowed when she finally reached the forest. Not wanting to trip and fall again, the girl made her way carefully through the twisting branches and vines, stopping only when she reached a familiar pit.

 _This time_ she searched around the hole, finding a thick tree root sticking out of the dirt and descending into the darkness below. That must have been what she tripped on before. Frisk gave the root a tug. It _seemed_ pretty stuck in there. She'd survived the fall unharmed before, sure, but climbing down _would_ be better.

Turning around, Frisk began to lower herself into the hole, holding onto the root until her knuckles whitened. As she descended, Frisk felt eyes watching her. That feeling was soon joined by a familiar high pitched and slightly distorted voice.

"The root's gunna end."

Huh? Sure enough, the root she was climbing down began getting too thin to support the girl's weight.

Sighing, Frisk glanced down over her shoulder. It wasn't _that_ far. Moving one hand to hold her glasses on, she let go with the other.

Moments later, green vines shot up from the ground below, wrapping tightly around Frisk. She sucked in a small startled gasp, looking down to find the golden flower glaring up at her. "What kind of reckless freak _are_ you?" His vines began to lower her down.

She just smiled down at him. "Wow, thanks for the catch, Flowey!"

When she was about a foot above the ground, the vines released her, and slithered back underground. She landed with a thud on her rear. Not the best but a lot better than the full fall.

"It's been a month, what are you doing down here again?"

The smile dropped from her face as she stayed on the ground next to the flower, only shifting to a more comfortable position. "I'm sorry it took me so long. I meant to come back down sooner. It's … not easy being ambassador for everyone."

Flowey rolled his eyes. "What'd you _expect?_ You brought a bunch of _monsters_ up to a place they'd been _banished_ from." He then narrowed his eyes. "And I don't need your pity-visits. I'm _fine_ here on my own! If you came for that, you wasted a trip!" After a moment, his irritated glare, shifted into a twisted and fanged grin. "Or wait, it's too challenging isn't it? ~ You came back down here to reset, didn't you? ~"

"No, I'm not resetting. "

Flowey's toothy smirk fell into a grimace. "Then you wasted your time, go away."

Frisk sighed, giving the blossom a tired smile, before shrugging off her backpack. "Actually, I – just hear me out ok? – I have a question for you." Flowey blinked slowly with pure impatience, though he stayed quiet. "I didn't come down just to visit you. I was hoping," Frisk unzipped the bag and pulled out the flowerpot. "You'd come with me?"

"No." Flowey's petals flattened, and reminded her of an angry cat. Frisk opened her mouth but Flowey beat her to it. "I said no! Didn't you listen to what I said before or are you deaf as well as dumb? I said to just forget about me! I can't be _him_ anymore!" Sharp red thorns began protruding from Flowey's stem, as well as the few vines Frisk suddenly felt wrapping around her. Tightly. "I will _never_ be _him_ again!" Frisk winced as the thorns pierced her skin. "I don't have a soul! I _had_ one! I had _many_!" Flowey continued to squeeze Frisk tighter with his vines. "I gave them up so everyone could see the stupid surface! I-"

"I didn't come down here for _him_!" Frisk finally shouted. Flowey's crushing paused, though he didn't loosen his grip or even withdraw his thorns. "I came down here for _you_ , Flowey. The little flower that greeted me when I first fell down here!"

"That was a trick to kill you and steal your soul."

"I _know_. But you were still the first one I met down here." Ignoring the pain of thorns digging into her sides, Frisk smiled at the flower who clearly didn't expect her to smile at a time like this. "While we're being honest here, it was actually your motto of 'it's kill or be killed' that made me want to find an 'option c.' And I did! – _We_ did! Together! We freed everyone after so many years of being trapped underground!"

The thorns finally retracted and the vines slinked back underground. Frisk couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.

"…All of that was just because I told you it was kill or be killed?" He was staring at her hard, as if trying to read her face.

Frisk nodded. "I was scared and didn't really know what to do. That gave me something to focus on. It's harder to be afraid when you have a goal to work towards."

Flowey turned away, falling silent. Frisk took this moment to peek inside her sweater to see how bad the thorn cuts were. There were little red dots across her chest, but luckily they weren't leaking too much. The sound of a throat clearing caused Frisk to snap her head back up and let go of the top of her shirt.

"Why do you want to bring me to the surface?"

A wide grin spread over Frisk's face. This was progress! "A couple reasons! For starters: if we can free an entire civilisation, imagine what other amazing things we can accomplish together!" Her grin faltered a little, but didn't fall completely. "But also, you said I took the power to reset from you. So you know what it's _like_ : to die and be able to come back. It would be nice to have someone to talk to about that who _gets_ it."

It was Flowey's turn to sigh, but he didn't deny it would be nice to talk to someone who understands. Frisk waited patiently until the flower finally spoke again. "There's going to be some ground rules." Frisk beamed and nodded. " _No one_ finds out who I was. He's dead. And it's going to stay that way. As far as you're aware I am and always have been _just Flowey_. I don't have to spend time with anyone I don't want to. If I need to be alone for a while, my privacy is respected. And …" Flowey turned away. "…Don't be surprized when I mess up everyone's happy ending." A hand with the pinky extended moved into his line of vision. "What are you doing?"

"It's a pinky-promise. The strongest form of promising someone can make. Breaking it is the worst thing that can be done to someone."

Flowey let out a dry snort. "I think I can think of a few worse things." He gave the human a side-glance. "Aren't you going to set any ground rules for me?"

Frisk blinked, keeping her pinky out. "I guess, don't kill anyone, and just … be yourself." She gave his stem a gentle poke with her pinky. "c'mooon."

Flowey's small black eyes darted from her face to her hand and back up. Finally a vine slithered from the ground and wrapped around the finger. Frisk closed her pinky as best she could around his vine, giving a joyful giggle. "You're so weird." After a moment he pulled his vine back.

"I know." Frisk reached for the flowerpot she must have dropped at some point, but nearly jumped when her phone blasted to life, ringtone filling the small cavern. Fishing her phone out of her pocket she swiped to answer. "Hello?"

The voice that came through was loud enough for both to hear and caused Frisk to pull the phone away from her ear. "Franziska! It's after dark, where are you?!"

Moving the phone back to her ear, Frisk responded. "I know mom, sorry, I'm heading back now. I'll see you soon – yes, love you too, bye." She hit the button to hang up. "Huh, I didn't think the signal would reach down here."

"Franziska? I thought you said your name was Frisk."

She turned back to the flower who was tilting his head a little to the side. "It is. Well, it's more of a favoured nickname since 'Franziska' sounds too … formal." For what seemed like the hundredth time that night she grinned down at Flowey. "I guess we both have our preferred names." He nodded in understanding at that. Another similarity. Frisk shoved her phone back in her pocket. "We should go before she organizes a search party. It turns out if your daughter goes missing for a few days and shows up with a large group of monsters rumoured to be dangerous it makes a mom worry. If there's anything you want to bring with you, you can put it in here." Frisk held open her knapsack. "Tomorrow I'll get you a set of drawers you can keep your things in."

"I don't have any… Wait. I do." Flowey disappeared underground.

Frisk stood and brushed the dirt from her legs and clothes while she waited for him to return, hoping that he would.

A moment later he did. Frisk picked up her bag and held it open for him. Flowey shoved a rolled up green and yellow stripped sweater wrapped around something shiny into the bag.

Setting the bag down, Frisk picked up the flowerpot. "I forgot how long your vines are, you might not actually fit in this."

Flowey snickered. "I make them larger with magic. Only can in dirt." He paused. "But I'm not going into it. I'm not a houseplant."

Frisk raised an eyebrow. "But you _are_ a flower, don't you need dirt?"

"I'm fine for a few hours out of it." Grabbing the pot with a vine, he shoved it back into her bag.

Zipping the bag closed, Frisk slung it back over her shoulders. "If you're sure. Ready to go?" She fished her phone back out of her pocket.

"How-Who are you calling?"

"Sans, he can telepo-Hey!" A vine wrapped around her phone and shoved it back into her pocket before she could even finish the sentence. Before she could say anything else, more vines sprouted from the ground and wrapped around her middle. Frisk was lifted until she was able to grab the tree root from before. The vines then unwound and sunk back down into the soil. Frisk looked over her shoulder. "How are you going to get up?"

Her question was answered as Flowey began digging his way up the wall. He climbed it like a ladder: digging his vines in, pulling himself up, and then reaching up to repeat the action. Once he reached the root, he climbed onto Frisk's shoulder, carefully pulling his own roots free. Wrapping his now much smaller vines around her arm, Flowey glanced back down, and then turned to face her. "Alright, go." He then fell silent, letting the girl focus on climbing out of the hole.

Once out, Flowey looked around. "It's dark. I think there's more light in the ruins."

"It's night." Frisk pulled her phone out. "Don't worry, not calling anyone." Hitting a few buttons, the phone's light flashed on. Using it, Frisk made her way slowly through the woods.

"…Frisk?"

Frisk side-glanced to the flower perched on her shoulder like an awkward parrot. "Yeah?"

"I meant to ask before but… when did you get glasses?"

She giggled softly, turning back to the woods ahead. "Pretty much my whole life. They broke the first time I fell. I had to squint to try and even make anyone out."

" _That's_ why you were making such a dumb face?! That must be why you were so bad at dodging."

"Yeah…" Frisk sighed. She chose to ignore the 'dumb' comment.

Flowey snickered. "Staggering around like an idiot, blind as a bat!"

Frisk didn't respond, paying more attention to getting out of the woods rather than getting lost.

After what felt like a week, Frisk finally found the road. Flowey had been making fun of her the entire time. She glanced up, and then smirked at the flower. Perfect! She knew a way to get him to quit teasing. "Hey Flowey, look up," Frisk said, turning off the flashlight.

"Why?" Though he did. Flowey's little black eyes widened. It was a clear night and now that they were out from under all of those trees, a sea of stars could be seen, going on and on and on. Flowey could only stare, mouth open slightly.

Frisk smirked. Yep, that got him to quit the rude comments. Frisk continued walking home while Flowey just kept staring up.

"It's like that room in Waterfall but … _more_. It's like this every night?"

"Sometimes it's cloudy but on clear nights – like tonight – yeah." Finally reaching and heading into her house, Flowey kept looking up until he was forced to stop once a roof was over his head. Flowey grumbled in annoyance, though he let his gaze wonder boredly around the house.

Frisk called out. "Mom, I'm back, I brought my friend."

A blonde, blue-eyed woman in casual and yet still tailored, professional clothes, walked out of a side room. She smiled warmly. "Good. I'm sorry dear, after what happened I can't help … but… worry." Halfway through her sentence, her eyes fell on the sentient flower perched on her daughter's shoulder. "Your …. _friend_?"

Flowey's eyes narrowed at the tone she used.

Acting fast, Frisk forced a smile, and held the hand Flowey wasn't wrapped around just under him. "This is Flowey!" Her hand moved to gesture to her mother. "Flowey, this is my mom, Luna."

" _It's_ a … plant."

Oh dear. Before Frisk could say anything Flowey shifted his face to something creepier: larger pure black eyes with little red pupils and fangs. He then hissed.

Her mother's eyes widened in alarm while Frisk did her best to hide Flowey's sudden demonic face behind her hands. "Mom, _he's_ my friend – and also the reason I was able to come home! Please be nice." Frisk began inching towards the stairs, before sprinting up them. As she darted into her room, she called down: "'Night mom, see you tomorrow!" Frisk shut the door with a sigh before glancing at the growling flower on her shoulder. "Easy there, Flowey."

Flowey glared at Frisk. "I'm not an _it_!"

"I know, I'm sorry. She just needs time to get used to you. She's still getting used to the others." Frisk hesitated for a moment before reaching up to softly pat the flower just behind the petals. Flowey froze at the light touch before narrowing his eyes even further, however he didn't yell at her to stop. "She's …. iffy about monsters. She also calls the others 'it's. Once she gets to know you, she'll warm up to you. I know she will."

Flowey's face finally shifted back to normal. He still looked annoyed but at least the anger had subsided. Turning his attention to the room, Flowey climbed down Frisk and began exploring and snooping around the room. Anything he could poke his vines into, he did.

Frisk took her bag off and walked over to the tub of dirt. Unzipping the bag she set it down next to it. Turning around, she caught sight of vines disappearing under her bed. Frisk giggled before full on laughing.

A golden petal-framed face poked out from under the bed. He was raising an eyebrow. "What the heck's so funny?"

Frisk tried to wave her hand dismissively while she continued to erupt with bubbly giggles. Finally she managed "I-I've got a monster under my bed!"

Flowey only blinked at her, not getting the apparent joke. "Humans are weird." While Frisk attempted to regain her composure, Flowey crawled out from under the bed. Scuttling across the floor, the blossom investigated the tub of dirt. The container was large enough to hold ten of him, far better than that tiny flowerpot Frisk had shown him in the underground.

Dipping one of his roots into it, Flowey's face scrunched up. It felt nice and cool but there was something … off about it. Not enough to keep him from sinking the rest of his roots into, but still weird.

By then Frisk's giggles had finally died down, so she crouched next to the flower climbing into the dirt. "Everything ok?"

"What kind of dirt is this?"

"It's fertilizer!" Frisk grabbed one of the bags to show him.

Scanning the bag, Flowey let out a horrified gasp when he found the ingredients. "There's poop in this?!"

"It's been treated!" Frisk said quickly. "It's really good for plants! And look!" She pointed out some of the other ingredients. "All the vitamins _growing_ boys need!" Flowey growled. "And I mean regular dirt is worm poop and that's not even been treated, just straight worm poop!"

Flowey's face showed pure disgust. "Ew! You're just saying that! That's a lie!"

"Nu-uh! It's true!" Frisk sighed. "Alright how about this, it's late now, so please put up with it for tonight and tomorrow we can go look for a type without _that_ ingredient. They DO make pure chemical kinds, I just didn't want that kind making you sick, and this really is healthy for plants. What if you woke up tomorrow 20 feet tall with leaves!"

Flowey narrowed his eyes and bent down over the dirt. He sniffed it. "It doesn't smell bad, just like regular dirt…" It was more a comment to himself than to Frisk. She watched him debate his options for a moment before a thought came to her.

"Hey Flowey?" Frisk asked, causing the flower to look up at her. "Are you able to eat food?"

Flowey nodded. "You _better_ feed me while I'm up here."

Frisk beamed down at him. "Great! Tomorrow after we pick out better fertilizer for you I'm gunna get us some pizza!"

Flowey raised an eyebrow, though didn't bother asking. Instead he turned back down to the fertilizer he was in. He glared at it for a while before shutting his eyes and sighing. "Fine. I'll stay here tonight." Frisk smiled and reached down to softly pat the top of his head. A vine lifted from the soil and pushed her hand away. "Stop."

Frisk pulled her hand back. "Sorry. No more headpats." Standing up, Frisk stretched her arms above her head. Heading to her closet she pulled out a light blue night-dress. "I'll be back in a bit." Leaving her room, Frisk went to go change and brush her teeth in the bathroom.

Flowey shifted around in the soil, getting himself comfortable, before reaching a vine into the backpack. Leaving the locket, he pulled out the sweater and slithered into it popping his head out of the neck hole, letting the rest drape over him like a blanket. He then folded up the sleeves to make a pillow. Once satisfied he curled up in the dirt, resting his head on the makeshift pillow.

Soon Frisk returned, dropping the clothes she had been wearing in her laundry basket. Glancing over at Flowey it took a lot of _Determination_ to not comment on how adorable he looked snuggling into the sweater like a kitten.

Closing the bedroom door and climbing into bed, Frisk looked over at the flower. "Goodnight, Flowey. Thanks for coming to the surface with me."

"Go to sleep, Frisk."

Smiling, and figuring that was the best she was going to get out of him, Frisk reached over to hit the light switch by her bed, flooding the room in darkness. She then snuggled into her own covers, falling asleep soon after.

Flowey sighed, staring into the darkness for a moment before yawning. Closing his petals over his face, he was soon sleeping as well.


	2. A New Friend pt 2

Part two of my AU (that rhymes.) The first part was Frisk gaining Flowey as a new friend and this one is really Flowey accepting it. This dives more into Flowey's head than the first one did with Frisk that I really only noticed while editing.

…

An awful chirping sound woke Flowey up. His petals pealed back from his face while he glared forward with tired loathing. Lifting his head from the sweater-pillow, the flower scowled in the direction the birds wouldn't shut up from. He knew what birds were, there had been the odd few in the underground. More must have flown down and – Flowey blinked. Oh right, he wasn't down there anymore.

Glancing around the room, Flowey thought back over what happened last night. He might have agreed, but he still wasn't sure this was a good idea. He was willing to give it a try though. At least for a little while. Much longer on his own and Flowey was sure he would have lost what little left he had of his sanity.

The room was pretty bright now, but the light was still off. It took a moment for Flowey to figure out what it was. Backing out of the sweater, he climbed out of the dirt and scuttled across the floor. Using his vines, the golden blossom pulled himself up onto the bed.

Once up, Flowey gave a quick glance to Frisk's sleeping form, and then turned towards his destination – the window. Making his way to the edge closest to the window sill, Flowey peeked over the side of the bed. He backed up a bit before moving as fast as his little roots would allow him and leapt at the window sill. His two front vines managed to catch the ledge. Digging in with his thorns, the small flower pulled himself up.

Once by the window, Flowey just looked out.

"Wow…" He'd only ever seen the surface world once before, and he'd been …. a little distracted at the time to really appreciate the sights. It was almost _too_ bright outside. Other humans were walking up and down the sidewalk and the occasional one moved passed in a larger version of something that looked like Papyrus's race car bed. Those must have been what that was based on. The real versions.

"Hey, good morning."

Flowey nearly jumped at the sudden voice behind him. Turning around, he found Frisk stretching and sitting up.

"Sleep well?"

Flowey narrowed his eyes. "Why do you care?" He still couldn't understand how this girl could keep being so _nice_ to him. After everything he'd done to her, to her friends, and yet no matter what she continued to treat him with kindness. He couldn't understand and it made him angry. She could still feel things that he couldn't because she still had _her_ soul.

Frisk shrugged. "'Cuz I do. Did you sleep ok?"

"I slept fine!" Flowey spat.

"Good!" She smiled that cheerful smile again.

Flowey's petals lowered as he glared.

Frisk pushed her covers away and swung her legs out of bed, standing up. "Hungry?"

Golden petals somehow lowered even further as his eyes darted away from Frisk. He hadn't eaten anything since _hours_ before Frisk came down to get him.

Rounding the bed, Frisk held her arm out for Flowey. "C'mon, let's get some breakfast first."

Flowey _wanted_ to yell that he could get downstairs _himself_. But he _was_ hungry. And he'd already used energy getting to the window. He really didn't want to get halfway there and have to _ask_ for help. The plant growled and wrapped his vines around Frisk's wrist, climbing up her arm and perching himself on her shoulder.

Frisk laughed softly as she began heading downstairs. "I think you have a favorite riding spot."

"Shut up," Flowey grumbled under his breath. He didn't deny it though.

In the kitchen, Luna was reading the paper while drinking some coffee. Flowey's eyes shifted to the hollow black with red pupils he'd used last night, but otherwise stayed quiet.

"Morning, Mom!" Frisk greeted.

"Morning, Sweetie," Luna responded with a warm smile. It melted when she spot the flower.

Feeling the rising tension, Frisk quickly asked, "Hey, do we still have bacon?"

"Yeah. Bacon and eggs?"

Frisk nodded. "Yes please!" She sat down at the kitchen table while her mother moved to the fridge and then the stove. She placed her arm on the table, giving her shoulder companion a questioning smile. Flowey glared and stayed where he was.

A sizzling sound caught his attention.

Frisk stifled a snicker as the flower became increasingly interested in whatever Luna was doing by the stove.

Finally a plate was placed in front of the pair.

Flowey stretched his stem down to inspect the yellow mush and brown-ish red sticks that smelled absolutely tantalizing.

"Careful, it's hot," Frisk warned.

Flowey scoffed. He wasn't a baby. Climbing down the human's arm until he could reach the plate, he grabbed one of the sticks with a vine. With a small yelp, he threw it back down and cradled his burnt vine with another.

Standing from the table, Frisk rushed to wet a paper towel with cool water and then held it towards the flower.

He clutched his vine close to himself for a moment before finally holding it out to Frisk, who gently wrapped the wet cloth around it. Flowey winced at the initial touch, but the cold water erased any pain from the burn.

After a few minutes, Frisk sat back down at the table and picked up a piece of bacon. She held it up to Flowey. He backed away from it. "It's alright, it's cooled off enough now."

Although hesitating for a moment, the flower finally accepted the offered bacon with another vine. As soon as the bacon entered Flowey's mouth, his eyes snapped open as wide as they would go. It tasted _good._ He could tell instantly it wasn't made of magic like the food he was used to underground, but it tasted incredible.

Frisk wasn't able to get a single piece of bacon for herself. At least she was able to have some of the eggs.

Once dressed, Frisk took Flowey to go purchase some different fertilizer.

Flowey climbed up onto Frisk's head, trying to take in everything. The sun felt amazing, probably better than anything he'd ever felt. It was so warm and somehow gave him more energy. The small flower could easily grow used to life on the surface if this was something he could experience every day. Light just didn't reach underground. The cars were noisy and left awful smelling smoke. There were the occasional odd looks given to the two.

As Frisk made it further into town, Flowey became aware of just how many people lived here. Flowey's vines curled tighter in Frisk's hair.

"Are you ok?" Frisk asked, glancing up.

Flowey shook the thought out of his head, petals bouncing with the movement, and loosened his vines. "I'm fine."

"Is the crowd too much? We can sit somewhere quieter for a minute."

"I said: _I'm. Fine,"_ he practically growled.

Frisk sighed. "Ok, ok, nevermind."

Silence fell between them once more.

Trying his best to ignore the awful car exhaust, and the overwhelming amount of people, Flowey closed his eyes to just enjoy the sun.

Before he knew it, they were entering the garden shop. Opening his eyes and straightening up on Frisk's head, Flowey stayed quiet as Frisk found the fertilizers. Pushing bags aside, Frisk finally picked one up. "Ok, this one's just chemicals and vitamins. We'll get one bag for now, ok?"

Flowey nodded but otherwise stayed quite. He still didn't get why he even _needed_ fertilizer. There was plenty of dirt everywhere! As soon as Frisk paid for the bag, the flower jabbed the human on the side of the head with a vine to get her attention. Frisk winced and looked up at the plant on her head.

"I wanna sit out in the sun before going back to your house."

"Yeah of course – it's your house now too, by the way."

Once they left the store, Frisk made her way to a nearby park in town. There was a section of the park that had similar or even the same type of golden flower that Flowey was. Something about this place made him feel …uneasy. That didn't stop him from climbing down her arm and rooting himself in the ground as soon as Frisk sat down by a tree, however.

Flowey tilted his head in confused annoyance. The dirt felt oddly empty. Turning towards the bag of fertilizer leaning against the tree, Flowey pulled at it for a moment before slashing it open with some thorns. He then climbed into it. It felt kind of like sitting in a vat of rejected chemicals and not as good as what he slept in that night, but it would do. "Move this more into the sun."

Standing, Frisk tugged the bag out from under the tree's shade.

Flowey let out a happy little sigh as the sun hit his petals. Looking around the little park, the sentient flower's eyes soon fell on the other golden flowers. Something bothered him about these flowers. They seemed strangely familiar to him. "Frisk, how close are we to Mt Ebott?"

"We walked home from it just last night." The human moved closer to the flower who didn't seem to notice he was beginning to breathe harder. "Hey, are you ok?"

Flowey shook his head. Shaking, he stumbled out of the fertilizer, but that wasn't it. The chemicals weren't helping but they weren't the problem. The flower was breathing, but it felt like he wasn't getting any air. He barely registered Frisk lifting him from the ground. He could almost _hear_ the angry voices demanding for the death of the beast that killed the child. He could almost see the pitchforks and other weapons. He could almost hear Chara yelling at him to fight back or he was going to die. A loud bang followed by a sharp pain in his furry body. Followed shortly after by sharp things flying into him. Staggering over some flowers, the seeds sticking to his feet and torn clothing as he crawled back underground.

The next thing Flowey registered was a cold cloth on his face. Blinking blurry and unfocused eyes, he finally noticed the blue fuzzy blob in front of him. Her mouth was moving but he couldn't make anything out just yet. Shutting his eyes, the flower focused on trying to steady his breathing.

"….wey, hey, Flowey, you ok?"

Flowey opened his eyes and looked up at the human. Her eyebrows were knit together, face almost radiating concern. He took a few more deep breathes. At least the tremors had stopped. "I-I'm ok, Chara… – Frisk! Frisk, I meant Frisk."

Soft fingers gently stroked his top petals. "Flowey, what happened? I've never seen a panic attack quite like that before."

Flowey's petals lowered, but he didn't say anything. He only shook his head.

Frisk carefully lifted Flowey into a gentle hug. The flower watched her warily the whole time. "I want you to be comfortable living up here. When you're ready please tell me what happened. Or at least what caused it so it doesn't happen again."

Flowey let himself be held, but he glared at Frisk's shoulder. He couldn't feel anything other than the physical hug. He couldn't understand _why_ she was hugging him. "Why? Why do you have to be so … _nice_ to me? Don't you have anything better to do?"

"You're my friend, Flowey. There doesn't need to be a reason to be there for your friends."

Flowey fell silent, letting Frisk hug him for another moment before squirming up and onto her head. "I don't wanna go back to that park."

"There's another on the other side of town," Frisk offered.

Flowey perked up at that, his petals lifting again finally.

Frisk smiled up at the flower. "It's a bit of a walk, but we can take a bus there today if you want." Flowey nodded. "Oh! Wait here for a bit." Reaching up, the girl lifted the blossom from her head. She held him carefully. "I left your new fertilizer there, lemme-"

"Leave it. I didn't like it," Flowey grimaced. "The chemicals made me kinda sick." He looked away and Frisk could've sworn he looked embarrassed. His little white cheeks were even slightly pink. "I'll stick to the stuff you made me sleep in last night."

Frisk's lips curled up in a grin that soon became a string of giggles. "You've changed your mind on it." It wasn't even a question.

Flowey's petals flattened but his cheeks only became pinker. "Shut up, idiot."

"Want me to bring some to the park across town? I couldn't help but notice you reject the _regular_ dirt." Bubbly giggles still left her.

Flowey nodded while glaring icy daggers at the human.

Sprinting upstairs, Frisk filled one of the flowerpots with fertilizer. And mere moments after, Flowey climbed into it.

"You make one comment or giggle and you're getting a pellet to the face."

Frisk held up a hand defensively, though she was still grinning. "Easy. I'm just glad I got something you like."

Flowey huffed as Frisk carried the flowerpot downstairs and out to the nearest bus stop.

The bus ride was silent, something the flower needed. Raising a vine out of the fertilizer, he rested his head on it as someone would their arm. It was only a matter of time before the others found out he was on the surface as well. Flowey didn't know which way he'd prefer: meeting up with them in small groups, or all at once – like ripping off a band aide. Just get it over with.

Frisk finally stepped off the bus. Flowey straightened his stem, and lowered his vine back into the soil. More trees and flowers adorned this park, but none of them were golden. Finding a sunny spot, the human sat down and placed the pot down next to her.

Flowey stretched his stem up towards the light. He blamed his floral-body for craving it like this but gosh darn did it feel nice. And now, without queasiness from the chemical fertilizer or that other park triggering memories he _never_ wanted again, Flowey closed his eyes, fully relaxing.

Frisk broke the silence. "So what does sunlight feel like to a flower?"

Flowey opened his eyes, turning to the human. She had at some point shifted to laying on her stomach, leaning her head on her hands while facing the flower. She looked like a child waiting for 'storytime.' Her face showed pure curiosity. He knew that expression well. Looking away, Flowey tried to find the right words. "It's kinda…. It's kinda like being surrounded by the warm tingly buzz of healing magic but _better_. It feels like it's soaking in through my petals and stem, going all the way down to my roots. Like a full body massage of warmth and energy."

"Wow! No wonder photosynthesis is so good for plants!"

The flower raised his eyebrows. "There's a name for it?"

Frisk nodded. "Yeah! It's actually why I asked if you ate food because normally that's how plants 'eat.'"

Flowey cringed. "I'll stick to eating by actually tasting things." Sighing, he turned his attention back upward. "The sun will help when meeting the others again."

Frisk pushed herself up to her knees. "Yeah?" She was grinning again. Flowey didn't even have to look to know, he could hear it in her voice.

Flowey raised two vines out of his fertilizer in what looked like a shrug. "It's only a matter of time anyway if I'm living with you now." He dipped his vines back down into the soil. "I won't attack them, but make sure they don't attack me. Some of them might remember me stealing everyone's souls a month ago."

The human beamed. "Don't worry!"

"You keep smiling like that you're gunna break your teeth."

Chuckling, the girl moved to lay on her back next to the flowerpot, folding her arms under her head.

Sighing, Flowey relaxed in the warmth of the sun. This and that bacon from earlier made up for the annoyances that came with becoming this human's roommate. The fertilizer as well. Maybe. He still wasn't fond of what it was actually made from – yuck – but it sure made his roots feel nice.

…

The reason Frisk didn't remember why a patch of golden flowers might be triggering for Flowey is because honestly at the time, she didn't remember that story. It was a month ago and she was about to face someone she'd been told was both nice but also who would kill her. She was listening to it but at the moment she really didn't remember it.

On a side note: Flowey x Bacon is the true OTP


	3. When You Befriend A Soulless Flower

**It's been so long since I've added to this there have actually been some headcanon changes, such as what year it takes place. I hadn't actually gotten bored with this AU, just so many things happening IRL and then some of my actually diagnosed ADD making me keep jumping ahead and either write or draw scenes from later on in this AU. I finally actually forced myself to focus on adding more to the AU's set-up. There is still one more part.**

 **Also. about the name change: It occurred to me (even after being on here for many, Many years) that on FF you can't really group things together unless they're set as chapters to the same story. And these are all parts of the same AU set-up. I figured it was important these were grouped together considering I jump around the timeline. Determination and Familiars is what I called the AU. Not A New Friend, those were just what the first two parts were to be called. I know every other AU has "Under" or "Tale" in it, and while I have since then realized I could have probably called this "Familiarstale" or something, but as it's been over a year and the rp tumblr blog is called Determination and Familiars, I've grown fond of that being the title.**

 **Finally. This is more of a montage of scenes of how fun it is living with Flowey while he's still soulless**

* * *

Vines snaked under the bed covers and wrapped tightly around Frisk's ankles. Careful to not wake the sleeping girl, the vines pulled her out from under her blankets, lifting her up even higher. And then released her. She landed with a thud and pained yelp. Groaning and rubbing her head, the human rolled over to shoot a glare in the direction of the fertilizer tub.

"Oh, good! You're up!" chirped the flower, vines slinking back into the soil. "Oh golly, are you ok? That sure looked like it hurt."

"This isn't going to become a morning _thing,_ Petals." Frisk pushed herself up from the ground, and felt around for her glasses on her bedside table. She then looked at her alarm clock. "5:30 again." Yawning, the human covered her mouth and sat down on her bed. There was a shuffling sound and soon she spotted vines climbing up the side of the bed. Reaching over the side, Frisk lifted the flower up and set him down next to her. She yawned again. "What's up, Flowey? Why're you such an early bird lately?"

Flowey shrugged his vines. He then climbed down onto the floor, and scuttled towards the door. "C'mon! All those annoying people won't be up yet!"

Frisk stood up just as Flowey managed to wrench the bedroom door open and began skittering downstairs. Throwing off her night-dress and pulling on a shirt and shorts, the brunette joined the blossom downstairs. Stepping into her shoes, the human quietly tapped out the code to unlock the door. She turned down to the flower, who glared up at her impatiently. "We won't stay out too long. Mom will freak if she wakes up and we're gone." She bent down to offer an arm for the plant to climb on. He refused it. As soon as the door was opened, Flowey scuttled outside. Frisk followed then turned and touched the keypad to relock the door.

It was mid-summer, but this early, there was a cool morning breeze.

Flowey actually waited for Frisk before scuttling down the sidewalk, little petaled head turning this way and that, taking in everything. Frisk was mindful to not accidentally step on the flower's vines trailing behind him as she kept pace.

This was turning out to be the best exploration yet for the small flower: he was already beginning to feel the warm sun as it rose, he was getting to explore the surface, and there weren't crowds of humans around. There was only one he could mildly tolerate at best.

Frisk stayed quiet, only occasionally glancing down at the curious blossom while he explored. She yawned every so often, but her tiny friend almost seemed happy as he darted about; something she'd never seen from the plant unless he was faking it to lure someone into a trap.

As their surroundings changed from a light blue to bathed in the warm yellow of morning, people left their homes to head off to work. Some eased into their autocars, and snapped opened a paper as it drove off. Others zipped silently by on e-scooters.

A certain group of people caught Frisk's attention.

"Hey, Flowey, let's go this way." She gestured down a random road in town. She kept watch on the group.

Flowey followed her gaze before looking back up at her. He opened his mouth but Frisk bent down, scooping him up, and turned down the road. "What? Are you being bullied or something?"

Frisk gave a forced chuckle. "No. Uh, let's just say some people aren't so happy that monsters are here now. And equally not very happy with the human who brought them up. I'd just like to avoid any scenes."

"Well what if I wanna cause a scene?" the flower challenged.

"Flowey. No. Not this time. They've almost killed monsters before." Frisk's face was stern, her mouth in an almost straight line.

Flowey raised an eyebrow, but otherwise looked unimpressed. "I've _actually_ killed monsters before and you have no problems _cuddling me._ Just do your stupid mercy on them and make them your friends." The flower began squirming to get out of the human's hold. "Lemme go, and let's go mess 'em up!"

"Flowey, I said no." While the human talked, she'd begun walking home. She made sure to keep a firm hold on the flower. If he wiggled free, she just knew he'd burrow over to that group. "I've been ok with you doing a lot of things: I don't care about when you're rude, or wake me up by dropping me on the floor. I don't care when you throw food on the ground if you don't like it. But I'm not letting you do this."

Flowey grumbled and lowered his petals.

"… How about this: you leave them alone and I'll get you a full plate of bacon."

The flower's petals perked up instantly. "Bribe accepted!"

…

Flowey climbed out of the flowerpot he had insisted Frisk leave downstairs. Frisk's mother was at work, and Frisk was at an ambassador meeting. The perfect opportunity for the flower to properly explore his new home without either human in the way. There was a small square of paper next to his pot; Frisk had left a note. In it, she wrote there was food in the kitchen within easy reach if he got hungry, as well as her number, but to please only call if there was an emergency since she would be in meetings all day.

Crawling over the note, and wrapping his vines around the table-leg, the small flower slowly slid down to the floor. Uncoiling from the table, Flowey began scuttling across the floor, using his vines like spider legs. He was in the living room, the largest room in the house. He'd only ever passed through this room into the kitchen and hadn't actually spent much time in it. There was a large bookcase against the far wall facing the staircase that held mostly books, a small collection of DVDs, and a few boxes marked as 'Games.'

Flowey crawled closer and wrapped a vine around a game, pulling it out for a closer look: 'Battleship', whatever that was. While the main picture on the box showed what Flowey assumed was the game, on the sides there were pictures of what he could only guess were 'battleships' blowing up. He couldn't help but snicker at the thought of such a pacifist like Frisk owning a game like this.

Dropping the box, Flowey continued his exploration of his new home.

Scuttling across the room, Flowey checked out the couch and smaller coffee table. The couch was soft and Flowey liked the medium blue of it. Maybe next time he'd have Frisk leave his flowerpot on there instead.

Moving past the couch, Flowey scuttled out, ignoring the kitchen, and into a little room just to the right. This was the mysterious room Luna walked out of on his first night on the surface. It was an office of sorts: there was a desk with screens above it, and several narrow bookcases and file cabinets. The screens interested him, and the desk surface had rows of letters and numbers. A computer, Frisk called it. Different to the one in Alphys' lab. After a moment he decided he didn't want to use the energy to climb the desk just to find he couldn't make the screens do anything. Flowey backed out of the room.

Skittering back through the livingroom, Flowey approached another door, and gave a quick peek in: just a small, boring bathroom. Flowey made his way to the stairs. Using his vines, he slowly climbed them: he placed two vines on the step above, and pulled himself up. He repeated this until he finally reached the second floor.

Glancing into his and Frisk's room near the top of the stairs, Flowey continued down the hall and peeked into the first room he came to. A bathroom, larger than the one downstairs but not very interesting. Ducking out, he scuttled further down the hall before trying the next door. This one was locked.

Frowning, the flower thought about shooting it with his pellets until it broke, but ultimately decided against it. That wouldn't exactly help Frisk's mother warm up to him.

The next door opened. This was a bedroom but other than a bed and nightstand the room was completely empty.

Closing the door, Flowey maneuvered his way downstairs to see what food Frisk left for him. There was still the basement, but Flowey… didn't feel like exploring that. He could do that later when Frisk was back.

…

Frisk groaned as she glared down at the paperwork covering almost the entire surface of her desk.

"Just write that everyone's fine and they should butt out of everyone's business already!"

The human turned around towards the flower sitting on the desk. A flowerpot was next to him. He wasn't in it but he was idly drawing figure 8s in the soil with a vine. He was resting his petaled head on another vine.

"I can't say that. It needs to be professionally worded." Frisk sighed.

Flowey huffed loudly. "I'm bored!"

"I know! I'm sorry! I am too, but I gotta finish this first." Frisk ran a hand through her hair. "Once this is finished, I promise, I'll find something fun to do – as long as it's legal."

As soon as the words left her mouth, Flowey grabbed the paper with his vines to look it over. He then gave it back. "Ok. I'll help you finish this – and then I wanna go outside and play. Find something fun that can only be done up here."

Frisk nodded in thanks.

The human had to write quickly while the flower talked about the other monsters. Some things she knew from talking to the others herself: like how Toriel and Asgore adopted a human who fell, without hesitating, or how Papyrus always tries to inspire others. Some things she didn't. Like how Nabstablook would sit and talk to someone for _hours_ if they were truly upset. Or how the bunny who ran the inn, if someone desperately needed a warm place to stay the night but had no money, would let them stay anyway.

Or how the skeleton brothers had once taken in a homeless child.

Soon the spaces provided on the paperwork were all filled.

"Thanks so much, Flowey!" Frisk said, stacking the paperwork in a neat pile. Thinking for a moment, she then asked, "Have you ever been on a bike before?" At the confused look she added, "Two wheels, you ride it around?"

"Chara used to talk about those. You actually have one?"

Frisk nodded. "Yeah! Though I'm going to insist you go in the pot. I don't want you being blown off during the ride."

Once the flower nestled back into the soil, Frisk picked up the pot and went out to the garage. Grabbing a basket and some straps, Frisk clipped the basket to the front of her bike, set the flowerpot in it, and used the straps the secure it. She then popped a helmet on and walked the bike outside.

Flowey stayed quiet, mostly just enjoying the sun while Frisk pedalled along the road. However as soon as Frisk rode down a hill and the wind rustled through his petals, Flowey actually started to enjoy it. He closed his eyes and stretched himself taller in his little pot.

Frisk circled around the neighborhood in order to go down the small hill again and again, and only stopped when her legs needed a rest.

After the break, the two rode around town for a few hours, Flowey at one point directing the way. Rolling through town on the bike allowed him to explore quickly.

…

"Ok, I'll be right back and then we'll head out." Frisk stood up from her desk and ran upstairs.

Flowey for a change had actually already been in one of his little flowerpots. He turned to look out the window while waiting for Frisk.

Footsteps caught his attention. That was fast. Turning around expecting Frisk, instead he found Luna. She was holding a watering can.

"Um. … Hi?" she tried. When Flowey didn't respond, the woman spoke again, stepping closer to the desk. "We got off on the wrong foot. If you really did help Frisk escape, I do thank you for that."

"Uh, yeah…" Flowey looked towards the stairs, hoping Frisk would hurry up.

"You're name's Flowey, right?"

The flower nodded, but said nothing. There was another awkward silence. "Do you want some water?" she added.

Instead of answering, Flowey turned away.

Luna hesitated, then stepped forward and raised the watering can. Water poured onto the soil surrounding Flowey.

"Hey!" Flowey whipped around and actually bit the woman on the hand. He didn't draw blood but it startled her, and it hurt.

Luna flinched away, inspecting her hand. She slammed the watering can down and stomped upstairs. She passed Frisk who was finally heading down. "Frisk, do be careful that that _weed_ doesn't bite you too."

Frisk could only blink, mouth open slightly as she quickly darted the rest of the way downstairs. She flew over to Flowey, who now had his thorns out. "You _bit_ her?"

"She watered me when I wasn't thirsty!" Though glaring, he retracted his thorns as Frisk lifted his flowerpot.

"Did you _tell_ her you didn't want to be watered?"

"…No. But I turned away when she offered!"

Frisk sighed. "Flowey… You need to use your words. Heck _I_ might have taken that as a yes, with you turning away so the water wouldn't splash on your face!"

Flowey huffed as Frisk carried his pot outside.

"We're going to work on your manners."

…

Undyne shot a glare at the small flower, who responded by sticking out his tongue and blowing a raspberry, before she grinned at Frisk. "Alright! Like usual, we're gunna start with a few warm up stretches and maybe work you up to lifting fifteen pounds this time!"

Flowey called from across the room, by one of the training dummies. "When're you gunna kick her butt?"

Undyne fixed the plant with another glare. "I'm not gunna kick her butt, it's not that kind of training!"

Flowey giggled. "I meant Frisk kicking _your_ butt!"

Groaning, the blue fish monster turned back to Frisk. By now the human had finished her warm up stretches. "Ready?"

Frisk nodded.

Neither Undyne nor Flowey knew why Frisk brought him along for these sessions, but the flower watched intently. He was kinda curious what sort of 'training' Undyne actually gave the human. There was no need for the girl to fight, so what was the point?

By the looks of it, it was mostly self-defense: Rather than throwing punches and kicks, Frisk was dodging and twisting away from various holds.

After a while, Undyne brought out the weights. "What do you want to start with?"

Before Frisk could answer, Flowey piped up. "Go for the heaviest!"

"Will you butt out?!" Undyne yelled. "I'd like to see you do better!"

This only made the flower laugh more. "I'm literally a flower. There's no way I could! I dunno why Frisk even brought me along."

Frisk grinned. Apparently she was waiting for him to say exactly that. "But Flowey! When I went down to get you, you caught me just fine when I fell and even lifted me back up to that tree root when we left! And I'm about twice your size!"

Flowey sank in the dirt while Undyne turned from Frisk back to him, motioning with a finger for him to come over. Unhappy where this was heading, Flowey reluctantly burrowed closer.

"How much _can_ you lift?" Undyne asked once he was close enough.

Flowey made the mistake of raising two vines out of the ground in a shrug. He realized his error at the way the grin spread across Undyne's face. Before he could lower the vines back underground, Undyne set the entire box of weights on them. For a moment he almost dropped them, but then he tightened his vines around the box and held it in place.

"Not bad." Taking a weight from the box and handing it to Frisk, she then added, "While still holding those, pick up Frisk as well."

The human laughed lightly as vines snaked around her before lifting her up.

At the flower's almost smug grin, Undyne said. "Alright. Now come out of the dirt and lift something."

Flowey's grin fell.

"C'mon, Flowey! It'll be fun!" Frisk added.

Gulping, the small flower set Frisk and the box of weights down before his roots disappeared underground and he carefully uprooted himself, climbing out of the dirt. He glanced around nervously, feeling very uneasy at being out of the ground and exposed like this around the fish monster. Without soil, his vines could not grow and protect him. If she wanted to, she could easily spear him before he could slip back into the soil.

Flowey swallowed. But instead of attacking, Undyne reached into the box and pulled out a dull metal weight with a '2' in large numbers etched into either end. The two pounder was the lightest one in the box. Undyne held it out to the flower.

His vines looked shrunken compared to before, without soil to give him strength. Reaching up with a much smaller vine, Flowey wrapped it around the middle of the weight. And was promptly pulled to the ground with a clunk. Coiling a second vine around the narrow middle of the weight, Flowey tugged at it, leaning back and grimacing. The weight did not shift.

"Looks like I'll be toughening up _both_ of you," Undyne smirked.

Later, Frisk headed for home with an exhausted flower laying limply across her head.

"Are you ok?" Frisk asked, glancing up.

After a moment Flowey sighed and then responded. "Yeah. It was actually kinda fun. I'm," he stretched out a vine, "tired. But in a good way."

The human beamed, her eyes still rolled upward, trying to glimpse the tired flower. "Wanna come again the next time?"

Now the flower hesitated. "Uhhh… Maybe. If you can convince her there's no way I'll work up to lifting 20 freaking pounds in one single freaking day."

Frisk giggled and nodded, reaching up to softly pat the flower on the head. This time he didn't shove her hand away. "Deal!"

The sun was setting, and in the falling dusk, Flowey didn't see a small happy smile turn up the corners of Frisk's mouth. This was great! He liked it. Her plan just might work: Flowey was still a little ball of aggression. This could be an outlet for him to work some of that out without harming anyone.

…

"Where are we going now?" the flower grumbled from his perch on Frisk's shoulder. Over her other shoulder was the strap from a backpack which held one of Flowey's flowerpots.

"To see my dad!" the human chirped. "You haven't met him yet!"

Flowey shut his eyes and unwrapped a vine in order to shrug with it. "I just assumed you didn't have one and you were created in some lab. Some experiment on how to make something freakishly happy all the time."

Frisk raised an eyebrow. "Flowey," she said, adding a slight whine to her tone. "I'm not freakishly happy all the time!"

"Sure." After a moment, Flowey added, "Why aren't they together? Is it like Mo- … Toriel and Asgore?"

Frisk glanced away with a slight wince. After a moment the human finally responded. "It's … complicated. They technically aren't divorced but they're struggling to stay together."

Flowey raised an eyebrow. "That's dumb."

Letting out a sigh, Frisk shook her head. "It's just a … it's complicated. I don't want to see them fight anymore, but I also hope they can work things out and maybe get back together someday."

Flowey rolled his eyes and fell silent again.

As the two waited for the bus, the pair couldn't help but notice how many people gave them odd looks and the occasional glare. As one solar bus sighed past, silent except for the wheels crunching on the road, Flowey stuck his tongue out at passengers frowning through the windows.

Frisk sighed again. "It's better to just ignore them, Flow-Flow."

With his tongue still out, the flower pivoted his glare to the girl before pulling his tongue back in. "Yeah. That's a nickname that's not staying."

Finally their bus came. As the door slid open, the bus lowered almost to the ground, and an elderly woman crept slowly off. Getting on, Frisk walked to the back. Flowey climbed over to the shoulder closest to the window, looking out. The bus pulled away from the side of the road and joined the cars, bikes and motorcycles flowing down the street.

As the view outside passed by, the small flower reminded Frisk of an excited puppy on a car ride, the way they bounce up to a window and fall back down, then finally place paws on the door to see out. Flowey also was trying to take in everything. He kept moving from her shoulder, then down onto the seat, then climbing back up on her shoulder. At one point he was stretched so far forward on his roots, when the bus stopped Frisk had to quickly catch him from falling.

Finally Frisk pushed a button on a grab-pole in the aisle. The word STOPPING lit up on a screen near the front, where the driver was located. The bus slowed, then pulled to the side of the road and stopped. Frisk gathered up Flowey and headed to the door. The pair were greeted by an average height Hispanic man in his forties.

"Hi, Dad!" Frisk exclaimed, running up and hugging the man.

"Ah mi hija, I hope the bus ride was alright?" He returned the hug. When he pulled back, he asked, "And who's this?" while offering a friendly smile to the flower perched on the girl's shoulder.

Well, Flowey was beginning to see where Frisk gets her annoying smile from. "…Flowey."

"It's nice to meet you, Flowey. My name's Dante."

Unlike Frisk's mother, this guy didn't make even one comment about the fact Flowey was, well, a flower. He was simply greeted the way another monster might greet him. Very weird coming from a human, but a nice surprize.

However, as good as it was, Flowey was curious about how calm this Dante was about everything. The human's other parent seemed to still have such a huge problem with him. "Um, how are you so ok with a talking flower?"

Dante let out a soft chuckle. "Why shouldn't I be? You have every right to exist as I do."

Flowey wasn't able to respond, rendered silent in the way only Frisk and Papyrus had managed until now. Never before had a human said something like that. He still didn't even fully _like_ his own existence. After technically what could be years and years of being bored with nothing new, he wasn't sure how to react to so many new and surprizing things happening all the time. The flower remained quiet. One group of humans were so dangerous Frisk walked a different route. Others glared, or stared, or frowned. To Frisk's own mother, he was a weed! But to Dante? He had a 'right to exist.'

Maybe Frisk and Dante shared more than just the tendency to grin like idiots.

…

Five a.m. rolled around once again. Flowey blinked awake and yawned as he unfurled his petals. Sunlight was just beginning to peek through the bedroom window. The human lay quietly in the bed. It wasn't fair she was sleeping with the sun starting to rise.

A toothy grin spread across the flower's face as his vines stretched forward out of his fertilizer bed to snake under the blankets. The vines had only just barely wrapped around Frisk's ankles when she sudden spoke.

"Don't you even dare." Her voice sounded half asleep though.

"Whaaaaat?" Flowey feigned innocence. "I wasn't going to do anything!"

A tired groan escaped the human as she pushed herself up on one arm, turning her head to peer down at the flower. She caught Flowey quickly withdrawing his vines back into his dirt tub. "So you _weren't_ about to throw me out of bed again." It wasn't a question. She knew.

"Why would I do something so mean to my bestest friend ever?"

"You've done this every morning for the past week and a half!"

Flowey dropped his innocent act. "I'm bored, ok?! I stupidly synced up with the stupid sun and so I'm forced awake at stupid-early o' clock and have to wait for your stupid butt to wake up! So I get you up so it's less awful for me!" The small flower raised three of his vines and crossed two of them, imitating folded arms while pointing the third accusingly at Frisk. "You never warned me that coming to the surface included these side effects!"

The human sighed, though not in annoyance. Pushing herself the rest of the way up, she stood and crossed the room to the dirt tub. She knelt down to be eye-level with Flowey. "I didn't realize. You're the only sentient plant I know – well, other than the Vegetoids – but they didn't seem to sync."

Flowey only glared. "Fix it or find something for me to do and _maybe_ I won't throw you on the floor every morning."

Frisk exhaled through her nose and ran a hand through her hair. She hated being dragged out of deep sleep every dawn. Still, she couldn't really be upset with him for being pissed about being dragged to the surface just to spend hours alone every morning. After a moment an idea came to her.

"Maybe I can set up a little ladder next to Mom's computer. Teach you how to use it. Then you can watch videos or something while waiting for everyone to wake up," Frisk suggested.

The little flower snickered. "Ok Google: How to kill all humans?"

Frisk cringed. "Maybe I'll think of something else for you to do…"

Flowey's little face twisted into one of disappointment, tiny mouth ajar. "No, no! I won't! The only computers I've seen were Papyrus' and Alphys'! And they weren't hooked up the _actual_ internet!" He even shifted his face to resemble his old Asriel self: large red eyes, shining and watery, little fang-y snout turned down in a pout. Complete with a little quiver. "Please? I'll be good!"

He'd even altered his voice! He's dropped the normal distortion and crackiness, but kept the childish tone. It brought Frisk back to the night the barrier broke.

How was she expected to say 'no' to that?

Frisk sighed in defeat. "Ok, ok. You win. But if it was illegal to do down there – don't look it up online up here, ok?"

The flower's distress fled far too quickly. He shifted back to his flatter flower-face. "Deal!" he exclaimed, in his normal scratchy voice.

Frisk held out her arm for the little blossom to climb onto. "Well I'm up now. C'mon."

After easing out his roots one at a time, Flowey coiled them around Frisk's wrist.

Yawning, the human stood up, heading downstairs.

The next morning Flowey glared at the window, as the blackness began greying and then lightening up to a medium blue. He was tempted to fling the human out of bed again. So tempted. But he ultimately decided against it. While still in the soil, he used magic to extend one of his vines to the doorknob, twisted it, and swung the door open.

Climbing out of his dirt-box, Flowey scuttled out of the room. Reaching the top of the stairs, Flowey peered down into the gloom. He grimaced in annoyance. There were a lot. Careful to not trip over his own vines, the flower started climbing down each tread. Using his roots, he lowered his bulb first before crawling to the next step and repeating the action.

Flowey huffed in exhaustion when he finally reached the ground floor. Why did humans have to have stupid stairs?

Pushing himself back up on his roots, the little flower tapped across the livingroom until he reached the room just right of the kitchen. Luna's home office. Slithering inside and next to the computer desk, the small blossom began pulling out drawers so he could climb up.

The little plant hoisted himself onto the desk. Looking down at the holographic keyboard, he tapped a key to wake the computer up. Where was the mouse? Other computers Flowey had seen had an oval device one could slide around to move from one section of a screen to another, or to click a button icon. Aha! A small grey rubbery section was imbedded in the desk. Flowey stroked it, and an arrow moved across one of the screens.

He perched by the keyboard and slid a vine across the mousepad. A report with many words was open on one screen. Flowey didn't close it off but minimized it instead. He then opened Firefox and pulled up Google. Flowey paused to think about what he actually wanted to look up.

After a moment the little plant tapped his three other vines across the keyboard and a search for movies came up on one of the computer screens. Using the mousepad, Flowey scrolled the page for a moment before going back to the search bar and adding the word 'horror'.

Scrolling this page for a while, and clicking the star to bookmark the ones that caught his interest, Flowey finally stumbled across one from roughly 340 years ago. A _very_ old film from 1974 called _"The Texas Chain Saw Massacre"_.

Flowey clicked on that and skimmed the description, glad Chara taught him how to read human words. Liking what he saw, Flowey started the film.

It was the screaming that woke up Frisk and her mother; the high pitched shrieks of a woman in terror. Practically falling out of their beds, the pair rushed downstairs, following the cries to Luna's home-office. This is where they found Flowey, perched on the desk and grinning with sharp little fangs while watching the movie. Volume turned up to the max.

Frisk darted in and paused the film.

"HEY! I was – You said –"

"That's way too loud! And _that_ one's _way_ out of your age demographic!" Flowey actually growled, glaring daggers up at the human girl. "We'll make a list of ones you'll like that're more … appropriate." Frisk held an arm out for him to climb onto.

Flowey, still glaring, instead chose to climb down the desk and onto the floor and then sulk out of the room.

Luna crossed the room and after closing off the browser, checked the documents she'd left open the night before. She sighed in relief when she found they'd only been minimized. Turning to her daughter she asked, "I'm guessing you said he could browse if he woke up before you?"

Frisk nodded. "Yeah, sorry mom. I told him not to close anything off and taught him how to use Google." And told him not to look up violent things, she added silently, deciding against telling her mother about Flowey's interests. Luna would lose it. She was still getting used to monsters in her town, and in her house.

"Next time teach him about volume control too." Luna ran a hand through her un-made, messy blonde hair and checked her wrist, blinking upon realizing she didn't have her watch. It was a rather rude awakening. Yawning, Luna went back to her room.

Frisk sighed as she left the room, off to hunt for a pouting flower.

…

Sprinting upstairs and throwing the door open, Frisk beamed from ear to ear as she looked around the room for Flowey. "Hey, where are you? I've got some great news!"

Flowey crawled out from under the bed.

Frisk gave him an odd look. "What were you doing under there?" At Flowey's lack of a response, the human sighed and continued. "Anyway, the people at the embassy were really impressed with the paperwork you helped me fill in before. They invited you to come along to the next meeting!"

Flowey raised an eyebrow. "Why would I want to do that? Sitting in a room of grumpy old humans being grumpy and old? Sounds boring."

Crouching down, closer to the plant's level, the girl tried again. "Flowey, this is great progress! In just a month they're going to start listening to what monsters have to say!"

"What if I don't want to? What if I wanna stay home and watch TV instead?" The flower paused, but before Frisk could speak again, he added with a wink: "Buuuut, if maybe you offered me a _reward_ for spending my time with boring humans…"

"You're serious. I gotta actually _bribe_ you into helping monsterkind get equal rights." She ran a tired hand through her hair. "Alright, what do you want?"

Flowey tapped a vine on the ground. "Hmmm. A full plate of bacon and there's a movie series – _Saw_ I think – I wanna watch that!"

"Fuelling your addiction to bacon and gory horror movies."

The flower crossed two of his vines. "Hey – hey! I don't have a bacon addiction!"

Frisk snickered. "Of course you don't."

"So, deal?" Flowey asked, uncrossing his vines.

"I'll need to think about it – I'm not sure how healthy all that human-food bacon is for you." She paused, then added, "And I'm not sure how good seeing all that gore would be either."

If he had feet, he would have stomped. "I'm not a baby! With all my resets I'm probably older than you!"

"I just said I would need to think about it. And how about proving that maturity and settling for a compromise?"

The little flower grumbled. _"I'll think about it."_

13


End file.
